Thursday, June 14, 2007

One-state solution "gaining ground" UN envoy admits

The one-state solution for Palestine-Israel is "gainingground," a senior UN diplomat has admitted in a leakedconfidential report. Recently retired UN special envoy Alvarode Soto wrote "that the combination of [Palestinian Authority]institutional decline and Israeli settlement expansion iscreating a growing conviction among Palestinians and IsraeliArabs, as well as some Jews on the far left in Israel that thetwo State solutiuon's best days are behind it."

De Soto's "end of mission" report delivered to his superiorsin May, but published in The Guardian on June 13 containsstinging criticism of the anti-Hamas and pro-Israeli approachtaken by the UN, the European Union and the United States."The steps taken by the international community with thepresumed purpose of bringing about a Palestinian entity thatwill live in peace with its neighbour, Israel, have hadprecisely the opposite effect," de Soto wrote.

While his broadsides at the failed peace process have beenwidely reported, his acknowledgment of the decline of thetwo-state solution has drawn less notice.

De Soto, a Peruvian diplomat who has also served as a specialenvoy to Cyprus, observed: "Given that a Palestinian staterequires both a territory and a government, and the basis forboth is being systematically undermined," an increasing numberof Palestinians, Israeli Arabs and some Israeli Jews "believethe only long-term way to end the conflict will be to abandonthe idea of dividing the land and instead, simply insist onrespect for the civil, political and national rights of thetwo peoples, Jews and Arabs, who populate the land, in oneState."

Contradicting peace process industry conventional wisdom andspin, which long held that Israel's 2005 settler pullout fromGaza was part of an effort to implement the "Road Map" peaceplan, de Soto acknowledged that Israel was motivated entirelyby concerns about the fact that Palestinians are once again onthe verge of becoming the majority in Israeli-ruled territory(as they were prior to 1948). Israel is in a conundrum becausefurther unilateral withdrawals are "off the table" while "thedemographic clock continues to tick." De Soto predicts that"Should the PA pass into irrelevance or non-existence, and thesettlements keep expanding, the one State solution will comeout of the shadows and begin to enter the mainstream."

Signs that this is already happening include increased publicdiscussion of a single state in the Palestinian solidaritycommunity. This includes a seminar to be held this July atSpain's Universidad Complutense de Madrid at which Palestinianacademics and activists from inside Israel, the occupiedterritories and the Diaspora, along with counterparts fromIsrael, Spain, South Africa and other countries will discusslegal, practical and political opportunities and possibilitesfor a single state. see http://www.ucm.es/info/cv/cursos_pdf/72113.pdf

Drawing on his experience in Cyprus, de Soto speculates that apeace plan developed originally for Cyprus based on abinational confederation could be revived for Palestine.